What?! Man seen walking the streets with bee colony on his arm!
This Dominican beekeeper has shown the world how it's actually done. He has adopted an extreme method to transport a colony of bees by covering his entire arm with a swarm.
We are not sure about this new transportation method...
A beekeeper defied all levels of fear and has decided to transport a bee colony by carrying the queen in his fist while the thousand "followers" swarmed over his entire arm.
Read: Un-bee-lievable! Beekeeper chomps on bees to collect honey
A video has gone viral that shows the worker in the Dominican Republic, seemingly looking like he is unfazed, while he leisurely walks down the street with his left arm not just covered by bees, but dressed with them.
He apparently explained that he wouldn’t get stung by the insects because they were following the queen bee that was inside his fist.
The beekeeper carries on to explain in the video that he was transporting the colony and putting them in a box.
When the beekeeper was asked by the cameraman why he doesn’t get stung by the bees, he said:
They know their owner.
And do you have the queen on your hand? Because they are where their queen is
Yes. I have it in my fist,
After this video did the rounds, it sparked a discussion on social media, leaving people wondering how this Dominican beekeeper managed to transport the colony this way without an injuries.
Science believes the swarming occurs when a new queen bee emerges and a chunk of the previous colony breaks off to start a new hive. The bee swarm looks absolutely scary, but it’s the most docile ever because it’s only looking for a new home while protecting the queen. Since the queen, in this case, doesn’t feel threatened and isn’t being harmed, the rest of the swarm just follows along.
But on the other hand, others suspect that the insects didn’t attack the beekeeper as they could smell the queen’s pheromones signalling that she was not being harmed.
And, as you know it, bees have one of the most sophisticated pheromone-driven communication systems in all of nature, with all three castes having the ability to signal other bees through pheromones. The Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP) is considered to be the most important set of pheromones in the colony. As it affects social behaviour, maintenance of the hive, swarming, as well as mating behaviour.
We don't know about you, but this is definitely un-bee-lievable!